Right now, I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop, Starbucks. I love this place. The heaven of my dreams is a giant Starbucks where I can sit and enjoy a hot cup of Chai with Jesus and talk about everything. I know, it’s ironic that we would be drinking chai and not some really intricate, psychotic flavored coffee. I just prefer chai and so that’s what we will drink. I'm sure there's probably some website that can tell me what liking chai says about my personality. The fact that I get dog instead of regular or skim milk is probably an indicator of some self-righteous idea about health despite the fact that soy milk is likely just as fattening as regular milk. Starbucks actually using Vanilla soy in chai. Extra, extra fattening. But it's delicious, so that's what I'll drink with Jesus.
I love this place because it’s calm. I can sit in my corner of the room and study Torts without any trouble. People come in, grab their coffee, and suddenly all is right with the world. They sit down in comfy booths or chairs and pull out the Sunday Times, though I guess since this is Georgia they are pulling out the AJC, and just enjoy the world. This is where I’ll be on weekends from now on, more than likely. This is around the time that the library is just too stifling and the study room becomes an unproductive vortex of talking about everything but law school and how in the world we’re going to make it through this closed-book Civ Pro Exam.
For example, I ended up in two very long conversations about relationships on two different days this past week. Why? Well, because no one wants to accept the gravity of being five weeks away from finals. We’d rather talk about everything else, including our lack of a love life, dismal prospects of a getting a love life while in law school, and the ubiquitous “why do men cheat” issue.
oh yeah, I’m a law student now. I left teaching, the profession where everyone said “God Bless you” every time I said I was a teacher. Now, I’m entering a profession where everyone inherently thinks you’re a liar – a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And yes, there are those here. Blazer Boy is exhibit A. But that’s not important. So I’m in law school, and it feels like I drink more chai than the law should allow. This year has been hell on wheels. I feel like my emotions have gone up, come down, been flipped all around and then back again.
Somewhere in the midst of all of this, we get the work done. We accept that having been number one in every other arena is the elusive status reserved for one of the 250 of us and we move on. And in the back of my mind, I love it. I love the challenge. I love the anxiety. I love m professors. I love my classmates. But as with anything you love, it’s a very thin line between that and hate and I tend to fluctuate back and forth between the two, especially when I get called on.
But chai and Starbucks make it all better. Starbucks encased in a white cup with black scribble on it: Soy no water chai. And I can focus. I don’t worry about the gunner who seems to know it all and apparently did last semester given the scores. I don’t have to worry about the people who study 24 hours a day while my body gives out after about 16 hours. I get it done here and in my own space and time.
And it’s just another day for the girl next door. Drink Up.
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